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Wait...there IS something I really liked about Omaha- I thought the concert at the park on the 4th of July kicked absolute butt, along with the fireworks show- it was great, seriously!
So you are trying to convince me that "The Saddle Creek scene" will become this influential style of music for decades to come? I'm not saying that Omaha does not have talent when it comes to music. But Omaha does not have a style of music to call it's own. Bright Eyes, Faint, etc...etc..are from here but the music is not original.
I live in one of the few international metropolitan areas in North America (the Washington D.C. metro area), and my job puts me in contact with people from all over the globe. You might be surprised by how many people, especially in Europe, Australia and New Zealand, are familiar with Saddle Creek Records and the Omaha indie music scene. Saddle Creek DOES have an office in London. It really HAS put Omaha on the international map----and everyone knows who Warren Buffett is. Regarding your argument about musical 'originality', nothing is new under the sun. All current musical forms are derivative in one way or another.
What is wrong with some people that they think it’s okay to list half a dozen negative things about Omaha and maybe be generous with a whole one or two rather lame positives. Did you get up on the wrong side of bed? To me, you people are nothing more than Trolls and somehow I doubt you even live in Omaha.
I’d also like to address the whole ‘historical buildings’ comment. Have you driven around the older parts of Omaha? Maybe you should take one of the tours the Durham gives. There’s tons of old buildings and houses in this city, and yes I have been to a good handful of other cities and stayed there long enough to really get to know it and let me tell you, Omaha has more and done more to preserve it’s history than a lot of them. Not all main cities but a lot of them. J.Canyon and the post office is heartbreaking but in the end, the canyon was just a bunch of warehouses and only one or two of the buildings were of any great significance we lost.
I agree that some here are confusing Identity and Culture. Omaha has plenty of culture, plenty of history and charm. I don’t think we follow the east or the west coast we really do our own thing but it doesn’t mean we have a true identity. There’s nothing besides the CWS and maybe the zoo that truly sets us apart. We don’t have a claim to fame like the birthplace of Jazz, Hollywood, country music or something like that or a monument like the St. Louis arch that is easily recognizable. And what we do have we don’t take advantage of it. I’m getting tired of all the bickering over things like Saddlecreek records. Okay so maybe we didn’t invent Indie music but you have to admit they’ve really grown here and we do get recognized for that. You realize most of the country thinks we’re still a cow town and people I know that have visited say Omaha is the Midwest’s best kept secret. Why does it have to be a secret? Why do we hide who and what we are so much?
Here’s my list, I’m sure I can add to it but on the top of my head.
Likes
Spring, Summer and Fall
All the shopping especially great thrift stores (you go to places like California, their thrift stores are hardly thrifty)
All the great food
So many free activities throughout the year
The non-free ones like concerts are still much cheaper than other places
Affordable housing
Culture
Old Market
All the brick buildings
The fact I can drive 25min and literally be in the country
Street layout is relatively easy to navigate
Everything else about Omaha
Dislikes
Winter
How over-looked and little national recognition we have
No real identity
Lack of high-end shopping (no Tiffany & Co., Louis Vuitton, etc, I know of cities that are smaller than Omaha that have these.)
I wish it was more diverse, it seems the white, black and Mexican communities stay pretty separated.
Wish we had more than two sky scrapers
No real amusement park, closest is Worlds of Fun in Kansas City or Adventureland in Des Moines.
Nothing that really sets us apart like other cities have.
I like the street layout, but if they are going to use hundred blocks they need to list them more on the street signs. After you get West of 72nd they all but disappear.
Likes:
Spring, Summer, Fall
Old Market & Heartland Park
Easy to navigate (driving)
Dislikes:
WINTER
lack of nightlife (clubs)...yes there are things to do but in Comaprison to other places we are def at the bottom of the lists
Popular artisits/bands often skip Omaha, although thats been chnging within last few years
NO REAL IDENTITY
No high end stores
Theres more but I cant think right now....Omaha is overall not a horrible place though. Good family place.
What is wrong with some people that they think it’s okay to list half a dozen negative things about Omaha and maybe be generous with a whole one or two rather lame positives. Did you get up on the wrong side of bed? To me, you people are nothing more than Trolls and somehow I doubt you even live in Omaha.
"get up on the wrong side of the bed"...
Nope.
"..nothing more than trolls and somehow I doubt you even live in Omaha"...
Nope again.
I have done my best over the last year to embrace this place, and yes, I live in Omaha. I would certainly have no reason whatsoever to venture into a forum on Omaha if I lived elsewhere, believe me. Disliking this city does not make a person a "troll", disliking this city makes a person someone who....dislikes the city.
You obviously love it here, and that's all well and good, and I'm happy for you- because not only do you love it here and have all sorts of good things to say about it, but the unemployment rate is fantastic, so you are winning on all fronts.
I, on the other hand, don't like the screwy roads and road signs/lights, drivers who lay on the horn if you don't move within a nano-second of the light changing, and drivers that drive like speed demons, and with attitude. Who designed the roads in this insane place, anyway? Who fills in the horrible potholes and crumbling roads, who fills in the cement around the roadside grates so you don't pop a tire on the edge of the metal like we did, or the pothole my co-worker hit that was so deep, not only did she pop her tire, but bent her rim on it as well? And for the love of all that's sane...why on earth don't they plow the roads and put salt down when there is a lot of snow??
The humidity in the summer is nothing short of horrific. After a rain, there is a film on everything, come on now...how can a person be positive about that? It's gross. My neighbor, at 6:30 AM this morning was out mowing her lawn- at 6:30 AM on a Saturday?? But what am I complaining about, at least she was fully dressed- at a couple hundred pounds and around 5'2, and in her late 40's, she normally wanders out in her backyard doing her thing with a bra on, and short shorts...or a short t-shirt and her underwear...and I don't think my poor kids will forget the time she was out in the backyard with a towel wrapped around her- and nothing else. Don't look, you say? Sort of hard with a short, chain-link fence, and looking out the kitchen window. And don't get me started on the several hunting dogs that live with her in her home, and are let loose at the crack of dawn to bark at anything living or not that moves.
You don't hear birds chirping here...you hear locusts. The smog is unbelievable, comparable to California- difference is, in California there are mountains that surround the areas where it is the worst, giving it a "bowl" effect that holds the smog in. What holds it in here??
Shopping, "culture", you can find that just about anywhere in this country- there is nothing in the way of those things that make Omaha stand out from the rest- and I'm sorry...I find it really difficult to get excited about the Cornhuskers college football team, and it just doesn't do a thing for me to see autographed pictures of the players in the various restaurants, or to "have a chance to meet Famed Cornhusker *Fill_In_Name_Here*. But people here are rabid about them. Just. Rabid.
The bottom line is, some people DON'T like it here, and that's their prerogative. So people find a whole list of negatives, and a couple of "lame positives" about Omaha. And...? That's because to some people, there isn't much here to be positive about, or maybe some people DO like defensive driving, or potholes that you could lose a leg in, or never being able to turn left on a main road, roads that change the driving rules in midday and heaven help you if you don't notice the sign that says it's "One way ---> Between the hours of 4 PM to 7 PM" because it's hidden by trees and so small you DON'T notice, or humidity that suffocates, and rain that leaves film, or culture that's specific to this area. Why you feel the need to defend it, I can't imagine- so some people don't like it, you do, so there you go. There is nothing "wrong with people" who have a different opinion about this place. You know the old saying, "one man's trash is another man's treasure"--same holds true about places.
So, if I don't like it here so much, why, you ask, do I stay here? Simple.
...On the other hand, I am still in all honesty trying to find something that will make this city feel like "home", and I really do want to find it. Because we are "here" for quite some time, and I would love to find things here that would endear the place to me, seriously. So far, just hasn't happened yet, though.
"..nothing more than trolls and somehow I doubt you even live in Omaha"...
Nope again.
I have done my best over the last year to embrace this place, and yes, I live in Omaha. I would certainly have no reason whatsoever to venture into a forum on Omaha if I lived elsewhere, believe me. Disliking this city does not make a person a "troll", disliking this city makes a person someone who....dislikes the city.
You obviously love it here, and that's all well and good, and I'm happy for you- because not only do you love it here and have all sorts of good things to say about it, but the unemployment rate is fantastic, so you are winning on all fronts.
I, on the other hand, don't like the screwy roads and road signs/lights, drivers who lay on the horn if you don't move within a nano-second of the light changing, and drivers that drive like speed demons, and with attitude. Who designed the roads in this insane place, anyway? Who fills in the horrible potholes and crumbling roads, who fills in the cement around the roadside grates so you don't pop a tire on the edge of the metal like we did, or the pothole my co-worker hit that was so deep, not only did she pop her tire, but bent her rim on it as well? And for the love of all that's sane...why on earth don't they plow the roads and put salt down when there is a lot of snow??
The humidity in the summer is nothing short of horrific. After a rain, there is a film on everything, come on now...how can a person be positive about that? It's gross. My neighbor, at 6:30 AM this morning was out mowing her lawn- at 6:30 AM on a Saturday?? But what am I complaining about, at least she was fully dressed- at a couple hundred pounds and around 5'2, and in her late 40's, she normally wanders out in her backyard doing her thing with a bra on, and short shorts...or a short t-shirt and her underwear...and I don't think my poor kids will forget the time she was out in the backyard with a towel wrapped around her- and nothing else. Don't look, you say? Sort of hard with a short, chain-link fence, and looking out the kitchen window. And don't get me started on the several hunting dogs that live with her in her home, and are let loose at the crack of dawn to bark at anything living or not that moves.
You don't hear birds chirping here...you hear locusts. The smog is unbelievable, comparable to California- difference is, in California there are mountains that surround the areas where it is the worst, giving it a "bowl" effect that holds the smog in. What holds it in here??
Shopping, "culture", you can find that just about anywhere in this country- there is nothing in the way of those things that make Omaha stand out from the rest- and I'm sorry...I find it really difficult to get excited about the Cornhuskers college football team, and it just doesn't do a thing for me to see autographed pictures of the players in the various restaurants, or to "have a chance to meet Famed Cornhusker *Fill_In_Name_Here*. But people here are rabid about them. Just. Rabid.
The bottom line is, some people DON'T like it here, and that's their prerogative. So people find a whole list of negatives, and a couple of "lame positives" about Omaha. And...? That's because to some people, there isn't much here to be positive about, or maybe some people DO like defensive driving, or potholes that you could lose a leg in, or never being able to turn left on a main road, roads that change the driving rules in midday and heaven help you if you don't notice the sign that says it's "One way ---> Between the hours of 4 PM to 7 PM" because it's hidden by trees and so small you DON'T notice, or humidity that suffocates, and rain that leaves film, or culture that's specific to this area. Why you feel the need to defend it, I can't imagine- so some people don't like it, you do, so there you go. There is nothing "wrong with people" who have a different opinion about this place. You know the old saying, "one man's trash is another man's treasure"--same holds true about places.
So, if I don't like it here so much, why, you ask, do I stay here? Simple.
There are jobs here. Period. There are jobs here.
JMO
Sorry to hear that you are so unhappy living in Omaha . But I have to say, reading your post made me and my husband belly laugh! Oh the visuals of your neighbor...and then the locusts .
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. But I have to say, reading your post made me and my husband belly laugh! Oh the visuals of your neighbor...and then the locusts 
.
